1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer and a pressure-regulating device which regulates the pressure of a liquid in the liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
In the related art, ink jet printers that perform printing by ejecting an ink (liquid) supplied from an ink tank (liquid supply source) to a medium from an ink jet head (liquid ejecting unit) are known an example of a liquid ejecting apparatus. There are printers provided with a damper (pressure-regulating device) which regulates the pressure of ink supplied to the ink jet head within such printers (JP-A-2009-178889).
The damper is provided with an ink path (communication path) that connects a tank side liquid chamber (liquid inflow unit) and a head side liquid chamber (liquid accommodation unit) and a valve (on-off valve) that opens and closes the ink path. The valve is opened in response to the pressure of a pressure varying chamber (pressure-regulating chamber).
The valve in the ink path is closed when the pressure in the tank side liquid chamber becomes a predetermined value or more higher than the pressure in the pressure varying chamber. Therefore, the valve is closed when the pressure which pressurizes the ink increases, even during printing during which the ink pressurized and supplied from the ink tank is ejected from nozzles and during cleaning during which the pressurized and supplied ink is discharged from the nozzles.
That is, the ink is not supplied to the ink jet head when the valve is closed, and printing and cleaning are not performed. Therefore, it is important to restrict and control the pressure at which the ink is supplied in the printer so that is made lower than the pressure at which the valve is closed.
Such problems are not limited to ink jet-type printers, and are substantially shared in liquid ejecting apparatuses and pressure-regulating devices which regulate the pressure of a liquid in a liquid ejecting apparatus.